Of all the credible contingencies facing Australia in the foreseeable future, the most challenging would undoubtedly be our involvement with the US in countering a major Chinese attack on Taiwan. For obvious reasons, our politicians …
Debate: "General"
After nine months of squabbling, Lebanon finally got a new unity government on 31 January with the reappointment of Sunni politician Saad Hariri as prime minister. It’s clear that the balance of power in the …
This is an exciting time for Australian naval shipbuilding. Two patrol vessel programs are underway, the Anzac-class frigate midlife capability assurance program (AMCAP) is completing the first of eight ships, and Hunter-class future frigates are …
Australia may be a sunburnt country, with droughts and flooding rains, but climate change is relentlessly ramping up our nation’s inherent vulnerabilities: January 2019 was Australia’s hottest month on record, and nine of the 10 …
The dysfunctional politics of Brexit in the United Kingdom, and the midterm election reaction against President Donald Trump in the United States, are generating second thoughts about the populist tide that has been sweeping the …
Sea state Royal Australian Navy frigate HMAS Ballarat, deployed in the Middle East as part of Operation Manitou, took part in a successful anti-narcotics operation in the Arabian Sea. More than 2 tonnes of hashish …
In January, at the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi, Foreign Minister Marise Payne enunciated her government’s pitch to develop closer relations with India. Her speech was an attempt to reassure India and the broader region …
On 20 May 2018, the People’s Liberation Army Daily reported that the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), the China Coast Guard (CCG) and local authorities had staged five days of joint patrols for the first time …
The stoush between Beijing and Washington over Chinese telco Huawei shows that countries no longer compete only by using military or economic might. ‘Law enforcement power’—the use of a country’s internal law and justice systems …
Japan has taken up the G20 presidency at a key time in global economic affairs and has the opportunity to shepherd the global economy through a period of greater uncertainty than there has been in …
The support from Italy’s populist leaders for the ‘Yellow Vest’ protests in France is a sad first in the history of the European Union. Never before has one of the six founding countries of the …
Part of a leader’s magic is to spin a few words into political gold, capturing the moment and proclaiming the future. Think Franklin D. Roosevelt’s ‘new deal’, Winston Churchill’s ‘iron curtain’, or Ben Chifley’s ‘light …